Lisa Borders: 'The Fifty-First State'

Lisa Borders, of Keyport then Millville, captures the flavor of South Jersey in her novel, 'The Fifty-First State.'

‘The Fifty-First State’

By Lisa Borders

(Engine Books, 322 pp, $15.95)

Chefs have been admonishing us for years to eat local foods. The truth is, most of us don’t eat local, but we live local — sometimes hyper-local.

That’s not a criticism. If we’re lucky, we squeeze in day trips. But all too often, so much of this incredibly diverse state goes unnoticed as we tend to what we must, driving the same routes.

Lisa Borders’ engaging "The Fifty-First State" is set in South Jersey, in tiny towns where too many of us never spend time. Borders, who lived in Keyport and then Millville, captures the independence of the fictional small town of Oyster Shell.

Though one of the main characters is a high school senior, this is not a young adult book. It’s an adult story of building family where one was fractured, and how friends and neighbors create community during times of unbearable pain.

The first couple of pages are confusing — too dense, crammed with too many characters and detailing a fatal accident. Those who instantly must love a book will be tempted to put this down. Don’t.

The pace immediately levels out, as fully formed characters deal with the accident’s aftermath.

A novel that imagines the reformation of a family after a car wreck.

Donald Corson grew tomatoes on a farm that was in his family for generations. He and his wife, Brenda, and others are killed in a fiery crash.

Left behind is the Corsons’ son Josh, a 17-year-old self-contained, shy kid. The farmer’s older daughter, Hallie, is summoned home.

Hallie’s mother died when she was a child, and she and Josh have never been close. Hallie had been Holly when she was in South Jersey.

She’s been in Manhattan for 20 years, works as a photographer and photographer’s assistant, lives in a small but great apartment, courtesy of her best friend who owns the building. She’s still trying to figure out her life.

Now, Hallie becomes Josh’s guardian.

Hallie and Josh are good people. Josh loves to read and wants to become a writer. He is kind and animals take to him — noticeable in a rural community. He’s never had huge aspirations.

Hallie is also kind and wants to do what is right by Josh, but is unsure of how to do that. In fact, she’s not sure about a lot of things — from how to make dinner to proceed with her life — but she figures it out.

Here, Hallie and Josh are in that shell-shocked phase, after the accident and before funeral plans. Hallie, with her hand on Josh’s back, tells him:

"It’s okay. I think we should go in and have some coffee, and watch something really dumb on TV, and wait for people to start bringing casseroles over, and worry about wills and lawyers later."

Neighbors, Josh’s classmates and Hallie’s friends help. Along the way, Josh’s ambitions are lifted, he makes more friends and Hallie moves to the farm to help Josh get through his final year of high school.

She takes a job at a small newspaper that only publishes good news. Borders does a great job of fleshing out secondary characters, such as Cal, a drunk, former classmate of Hallie’s, who is a day laborer on the farm. Cal had beaten his wife, who left, and abused his dog, until Josh rescued it.

Hallie must come to terms with her mom’s death, which she always thought was accidental. Now, she grasps that it was suicide.

Over the year, they all grow. Josh experiences more, meets more people in high school. Hallie is forced to deal with her past and make financial decisions.

She becomes a more responsible adult and Josh becomes one too early. Toward the end, Josh is summoned to the principal’s office to meet a benefactor. He reflects on how he was last called to this office, when his parents were killed, and how everyone knows the broad outlines of his life:

"They didn’t know that some of the changes in his life since last September — maybe even a lot of the changes — had been for the better. They didn’t know that he had gone from living his life through books to actually living."

Josh and Holly must move on. Yet they make arrangements so they can always return and, in that way, stay local.